The present invention, in some embodiments thereof, relates to methods and systems for using nasal airflow to activate Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) of abdominal muscles to assist coughing.
Tetraplegic patients cannot cough enough to clear their sputum because of expiratory muscle weakness, mainly of the abdominal muscles. This inability to cough may cause respiratory complications, such as pneumonia and atelectasis, and are major causes of mortality and inhibit rehabilitation programs in spinal cord injury. People with tetraplegia depend on a caregiver applying manual pressure intermittently to the anterior abdominal wall in order to induce assisted coughing.
Prof. A. Catz and his team at Lowenstein Hospital—Rehabilitation Center have developed an EMG-activated stimulation system for abdominal stimulation independent of a caregiver. Stimulation for cough was triggered by EMG signals obtained from either the pectoralis major muscle or the deltoid. While it would be expected that FES greatly improve coughing ability, their data did not support such an optimistic conclusion.
Additional background art includes:
Published PCT Patent Application WO 2010/122560 of Sobel et al, filed Apr. 22, 2010, which describes a method of receiving input from a user, comprising measuring a nasal air parameter and generating an instruction for one or both of a device and controller based on said measurement.
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The disclosures of all references mentioned above and throughout the present specification, as well as the disclosures of all references mentioned in those references, are hereby incorporated herein by reference.